Hiral Rao

Will Mississippi lawmakers be able to reach a compromise on closing the state’s healthcare gap–by expanding Medicaid?

For more than a decade, Mississippi leaders have been working to expand Medicaid to offer healthcare coverage to more working families across the state. Being able to access quality and affordable healthcare is an essential way to keep our families healthy, our communities strong, and our state thriving. What most people don’t know is that […]

For far too long, this policy has been a long-awaited dream in Mississippi. But with the recent passage of House Bill 1725, with the Senate’s strike-all amendment, Mississippi has taken a significant step forward. Currently, over 200,000 Mississippians find themselves in this coverage gap. Many of them are hardworking individuals, often in essential industries like food services […]

The House’s expansion plan aims to expand health care coverage to upwards of 200,000 Mississippians, and accept $1 billion a year in federal money to cover it, as most other states have done. The Senate, on the other hand, wants a more restrictive program, to expand Medicaid to cover around 40,000 people, turn down the […]

Perhaps non-Catholic lawmakers and readers of this column aren’t moved by the bishop’s words and some papal and conciliar documents. For those folks, here are just a handful of biblical scriptures cited by Christian leaders advocating for Medicaid expansion at the Capitol this session: Matthew 25:40; Luke 10:35; Proverbs 11:25; Romans 13:10; John 13:34-35; and […]

The House last week invited “conference” to hammer out a compromise on Medicaid expansion legislation. White will soon appoint three House members, and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will appoint three senators to negotiate a plan. As the House and Senate conferees start deliberating, White told Mississippi Today: The House would likely not agree to any […]

Senate leaders also to date have appeared dead set on “expansion lite,” increasing coverage only to those at less than 100% of the federal poverty level. This move would ensure the state does not receive about $1 billion a year in federal Medicaid dollars, plus nearly $700 million more over the first two years to […]

Melissa Dodge, a single mother of four in Derby, Kan., who works part time as a restaurant hostess and is also stuck in the coverage gap, said she was struggling to get by as she tended to the complex medical needs of her daughter and everyday tasks like school drop-offs. Her doctor is careful not […]

Several of the governor’s staffers, phones glued to their hands, scurried around the Capitol shortly after the vote. They’d lost yet another battle in the war their boss has waged. Reeves lost real ground in his opposition to Medicaid expansion last week, unable to exert his influence even in the Senate, the friendly chamber that […]

Senator Kevin Blackwell estimates that 80,000 Mississippians would qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Senate’s plan, but said he expects as few as 40,000 may actually enroll—significantly lower than the House’s estimation of up to 200,000 for its version. One key difference is that the House plan includes full Medicaid expansion under the ACA, allowing […]

The Senate makes expansion depend on President Joe Biden’s administration approving its work requirement. But the administration has consistently revoked work requirement waivers, arguing people should not face roadblocks to getting health care. Only Georgia has managed to tie a work requirement to a partial expansion of Medicaid benefits. But the state only requires people to document […]

The Democratic senators strongly criticized the Senate plan to reporters after it passed but voted in favor of it to keep the bill alive – in hopes that the plan will improve later during House and Senate haggling. “This bill was not perfect,” Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons said. “We would love to see more individuals […]

Right now, Mississippi hospitals lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in uncompensated care costs, or money spent treating uninsured patients. That directly impacts the financial health of hospitals, with one report putting almost half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals at risk of closure. “It’s a tremendous burden on the health system,” said Dr. Claude Brunson, an anesthesiologist […]

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage offers government health insurance to people earning up to the federal […]

The Senate draft proposal would: Cover working Mississippians up to 99% of the federal poverty level. For an individual that would be an annual income up to $15,060. For a family of four that would be an annual income up to $31,200.  Not cover those making between 100% and 138% of the FPL — not even through […]

The pressure keeps building for lawmakers to take action on Medicaid expansion. And the latest voices adding to that chorus for change are trying to appeal to lawmaker’s morals. You’ll hear plenty about the political consequences of votes on controversial bills in the halls of the Capitol. But, clergy members are trying to tap into […]

Blackwell said he intends to redact key language within the House’s version, which was written by House Speaker Jason White and House Medicaid Chair Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, that would expand Medicaid within the state if the federal government rejects a 20-hour per week work requirement waiver. Since President Joseph Biden became president in 2021, […]

A majority of Mississippi’s Republican primary voters support expanding Medicaid coverage to the working poor, according to a recent poll commissioned by the American Cancer Society.  The poll, conducted on February 19-20 by private polling firm Cygnal, surveyed 600 people and showed that 55% of likely GOP primary voters in the Magnolia State support Medicaid […]

Forty states have opted into Medicaid expansion, where the federal government will pay 90% of the costs to cover primarily the working poor. But if the Legislature adopted Chaney’s plan where only those earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level are covered through Medicaid, the federal government would pay only its normal matching […]

“Our plan is to let our bill die on the calendar and then we’ll take up the House Bill,” said District 19 Senator Kevin Blackwell, who also serves as Chairman of the Medicaid Committee. “I think you’ll see our bill be a lot more conservative than what the House put out,” Blackwell said the Senate […]

The Republican-controlled Senate will delay voting on a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor this week while it works to build support among members for its own version of an expansion plan.  Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, on Tuesday said that he will let a Senate bill to expand Medicaid […]

Thursday was another deadline day for Mississippi lawmakers. Medicaid expansion was once again on the line, following some updates in the Mississippi Senate. Senators gave somewhat of an update on their Medicaid expansion plans in a roundabout way. They opted to let their own Medicaid expansion bill die on the calendar on Thursday. They will now move […]

Will state lawmakers pass legislation to expand Medicaid? In February, the House passed its version of a Medicaid expansion bill. That legislation now resides in the Senate. Initially, the legislators in that chamber wanted to craft its version of a Medicaid expansion bill. Now, that won’t be happening. “Our plan is to let our bill […]

In Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, Republican lawmakers have loosened their decadelong resistance to expanding Medicaid and making health insurance available to roughly 200,000 of the state’s low-income residents. But some Republican leaders have said they will not approve a bill without a work requirement, a provision critics say could still leave the most […]